We teeter over the brink to below .500 … again — the Mets just beat us, 5-3, on Wednesday (April 19) BOX SCORE — the main takeaway of the season so far is, “It doesn’t matter how good our starters are, or how many homers we hit, or how many double plays we execute if our bullpen is just going to start pitching batting practice in the last three innings.”
Last night (April 18), I saw a gem of a Clayton Kershaw start: 7 innings, 9 Ks, 3 hits and no runs. It was beautiful, and he got run support, as well, earning him his 200th career victory, 5-0, over the Mets. BOX SCORE For once this season, the bullpen was solid, like they knew Vin Scully (who was the night’s honoree with a swag Jersey giveaway) was watching.
But that only evened our record at 9-9, since the dreaded Cubbies won the weekend series (CHI 8-LAD 2 on Friday, LAD 2-CHI 1 Saturday, and CHI 3-LAD 2 Sunday), and the Mets nipped the opener on Monday night (April 17). A very eventful 8-6 affair in which J.D. Martinez went long twice only to see our 6-5 edge disappear with the arrival of reliever Alex Vesia on the mound. BOX SCORE Boy, did he and Phil Bickford really stink up the joint! Bickford balked in the tying run before throwing one pitch! But those loaded bases fall squarely on Vesia’s shoulders.
Aside from the groans when virtually any reliever is announced, the games this week have been fun to attend. Sometimes, when I’m walking on the Top Deck concourse, I feel like a teenager again, recalling those springs and summers when I covered all kinds of sports for the Valley News & Green Sheet. It makes me miss my dad, but in a good way.
He hired me at 17 as a full-time member of the Green Sheet’s Sports Dept., a rare thing for a girl in 1973. Now, it’s 50 years later, there are a lot of female sports reporters. A woman is a heartbeat away from the presidency. And yet, we are reminded every day that the world is still pretty much run by old white dudes.
Next Taco Tuesday, maybe we’ll see, “MALE MARIACHI GARIBALDI” on the ribbon board.
Yeah, probably not.
Piewalla's Dodger Blues 